Stories From the Field: How Two Companies Are Managing Their Data During Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are a complex challenge from a data standpoint. Integrating information from multiple sources that are each using different tools to capture and control data is a struggle for even seasoned IT departments. With the added complexities of legal holds and incomplete or nonexistent backup strategies, you have a recipe for confusion and data loss. But that’s not the way it has to be. With Druva’s cloud-native information management solutions, companies are simplifying the M&A process and ensuring the integrity and continuity of their data in the process.

For JP Saini, chief information officer at TRC Companies, Inc., Druva’s Phoenix server solution has been the ideal platform for handling backup and archiving of server data across multiple remote offices. Prior to working with Druva, TRC’s data was being backed up to a patchwork of everything from “tape drives to NAS appliances and backing up off-site to USB-based hard drives,” according to Saini. By deploying Phoenix, TRC was able to address many of the issues caused by this patchwork system, including knowing where the data lived and how and when it was being backed up, as well as making it possible to discern active data from archival data and handling it accordingly.

As Sani explains, Druva’s platform is the perfect solution because it saves time — and therefore money. “When we talk about mergers and acquisitions and how effectively we can bring those entities on board, at the core of it we are a consulting organization and the lowest common denominator of our revenue and the building block is the billable hour. So when you look at that, how effectively we can bring them on and how do we keep them operational beyond the integration, that’s important to us”.

This need to streamline the mergers and acquisitions process for information management across multiple organizations is echoed by Roger Huff, information security manager at Allergan, PLC, a specialty pharmaceutical company. “When we’re acquiring companies or acquiring large amounts of users, I can deploy Druva in advance, or part of the M&A process is that we get the client out there and I start collecting data, so that day zero I’ve already got a working dataset,” Huff says.

In Allergan’s case, the acquisition of several companies quickly led to a sharp rise in the number of end users, each with multiple devices that contained critical files, leading to an exponential rise in the quantity of data they control. This pressure made it necessary to find a better strategy for handling data retention. Allergan’s previous manual process for legal holds was time-consuming and heavily siloed. The legal team would alert IT of the need to place a hold on a user’s data. IT would then have to locate the necessary devices and manually back up data.

To cope with the rapid influx of data after an acquisition, Allergan deployed Druva’s inSync endpoint solution across all their devices in the company. Now when a hold is needed, the relevant data is immediately available via time-indexed snapshots that can be controlled and reviewed without any end-user interaction. For Huff, the process is much more streamlined than the old manual system “I don’t have to go ask you or schedule time with you to get your computer. It’s already done. The data is out there and all I need to do is now just go get it. For the users, it was minimal inconvenience to them. They had no understanding or knowledge that [inSync] was even there to be honest with you. It’s not their tool, it’s mine”.

Using Druva’s tools, IT departments can vastly simplify the integration and management of new data during the M&A process. What was once time-consuming and required a lot of hands-on labor can now be easily handled in the cloud. Druva’s cloud-native solutions offer scalability, reliability, and cost effectiveness for all your business data needs.